Everyone;
BE CAREFUL out there! Make sure you make it back home every day, unlike an unfortunate volunteer at another museum: http://www.wrex.com/story/26004784/2014 ... auk-county

Jeff

Railroading is very safe--but extremely unforgiving of errors.

Safety first always.

Railroads are inherently dangerous. We have a good record in modern times only because as an industry we have become very, very careful.

I've attached the FRA's running report for 2014 as of July 10.

Mike Allen

It's also important to remember we are often operating historical equipment that include designs that were very much purposefully eliminated from newer equipment due to their hazards. I got mildly reminded of that yesterday while running a hand cart by myself back into the building at the end of the day. When you're putting everything you got into getting that cart moving, you may not be watching where you are going, and I derailed it going though the backside of a switch aligned for the other track. Hazard of this equipment is that it seems to be designed for 5 person crew-two on each handle for power and one in the middle to run the brake and watch where you are going. (swinging around the handle that never stops moving to hit that brake pedal would seem to be pretty hazardous at the 'design speed'.)

Very, very sad.

It will be interesting to see how this woman's family's lawyer goes about
proving it was the railroad's fault. I suppose there's always a better way
of doing things - but let that not get in the way of a cash payout.

/Mitch

Sorry to hear about this incident.

One line that I use with new volunteers I first heard decades ago from the late William "Windmill" Young: "You can get killed just as dead on a museum railroad as on a 'real' railroad."

So let's all be careful out there.

when you consider if you listen to any news radio with traffic reports, the daily accidents on the roads, you barely hear anything from the railroads, (but they too are not without the problems as well, I wont detail, you can find that all yourself)

by comparison the railroads have been very safe but you may not avoid every circumstance. The railroads have a long list of safety rules.

That is why you stand in the middle and pump so you are right by the break.

As museums, even with old, less safe equipment, we have an advantage...

When running trains to move stuff is your primary business, you have a sense of urgency... a need to get things done. This leads to taking chances, to cutting corners.

As demonstration railroads, the need to move things is less important that the process of running equipment, and we don't have the same time constraints, and so can take more care.

Even with more care this stuff can bite if you get careless, or just miss step...

Lets be careful out there...

Randy

Due to the differences between us and commercial railroads, we must take more care. Inattention can easily lead to damaged/destroyed artifacts and injury or death to staff and/or visitors. Rail equipment is dangerous and the public is largely unaware of that. As a business inviting customers onto our property, we have a legal obligation to take reasonable measures to ensure customer safety. When we (as businesses) invite people to become volunteer or paid employees, we have legal obligations to provide them with a safe working environment. The questions that will be asked will most likely focus on that aspect. In many cases, that may involve prohibiting many historic practices that the mordern railroads have addressed, such as getting on or off moving equipment.

A situation like this is a good time for each railroad to reevaluate operating practices and procedures regarding train management at departure time. Was there something that could have been done that would have prevented the incident? Possibily so, but we will not know until the matter has been fully investigated and the facts reported.

On any of our properties, perhaps the most dangerous area is the platform. Unfortunately, many parents do not control their children properly and allow them to run around. The very proximity of the tracks and the fact that the tracks cannot be shielded from the platform (in most cases) is the greatest danger factor. Improper design or maintenance only increases the risks.

When I was at TVRM, the policy we had regarding passenger train management was that boarding/alighting was prohibited when the train was unattended. A trainman had to be present on the platform to passengers to get on or off. We also discontinued use of step boxes on certain platforms where experience demonstrated that they were actually contributing to passenger alighting accidents rathar than preventing them. It was also general practice amongst the better conductors that during departure, they observed the platform from the moment that they signaled the engineman to proceed until the last car cleared the platform, in order to immediately stop the train if someone attempted to board a moving car or went under the train.

Would a practice such as this have prevented the incident that just occurred? We will not know until the facts are reported. In the meantime, we can reflect on what occurred and look at our own organizations to see what we can do to improve safety on our own railroads.

Pretty sketchy report. However, it did not say that the engineer of the train made sure the woman was clear of the train before he started moving. Just confirming that would have probably prevented the fatality. It was standard practice on CSX when I was a crewman that whenever someone climbed down from the cab of the locomotive who was not going with us - like a supervisor or utility person - the crew member who could see the departing person would confirm they were clear of the train before we moved.

Of course, from this report we don't even know whether the engineer and the crewmember who was directing the movement expected the victim to climb down, and whether she was within the range of vision of any other crewmembers.

Speculation will do no good, other than perhaps reminding others how easily terrible accidents can happen. There are no small injuries in railroading.

The investigation will determine the truth to the extent it can be uncovered, and hopefully the findings will be taken to heart by the entire industry.

My condolences to her family, friends, and everybody at Mid- Continent. This experience will be very painful for all concerned.

Steve Hunter

Linda L. Rowe was the volunteer killed in the accident.

Here is an article about her:
Baraboo News Republic: North Freedom woman ID'd as train accident victim

An excerpt:


And here is the link to her obituary: Obituary: Rowe, Linda Lou

As noted, until we know more, speculation is useless. Another possibility is that it was moving as she got off, she slipped, and there was nothing that could be done. All too common "back in the day". Until the investigation is complete, there are simply too many possibilities to have any idea what really happened.

As for stupid human tricks, I've mentioned before that many years ago I possibly saved the lives of a couple of kids, and possibly their parents as well by checking under the train one last time before moving. I thought I was checking for the local dogs that liked to wander under the train while it was parked in the depot. Radio in hand, on the crossing, and ready to say "#xx, pull them down to the siding!" when I took one last look and saw a couple of heads bouncing around under a car. I immediately said "DO NOT MOVE THE TRAIN!" and ran back and assisted (OK, well, maybe pulled) the kids out from underneath the car.

I'm standing there, wondering just where in the hell Mom and Dad are when here they come, crawling out from under the car as well! Mind, you this was a three car train, not a 100 car unit grain train. They crawled under the last car! Instead of walking maybe 20 feet and going around. With all the stuff under the coach, it was much harder to crawl under than go around.

They were from a different country (which one doesn't matter) and didn't speak much if any English. They stood up against the side of car in a mix of shock and possibly fear while some red faced guy screamed at them for a minute or two. They may not have understood "What in the &%$# were you doing!?!? Do you know how close I was to running you over?!?" but I think they got the general idea I wasn't happy with them. Yes, screaming at people was very much against company policy (duh!). It was certainly not the proper way to handle the situation. My only excuse is that the extreme adrenaline rush of very nearly killing somebody will apparently make you lose your cool... I was so shook up that somebody took one look at me 20 minutes later and immediately said "What happened?" without knowing anything about the incident.

On a less serious note, several dogs have also been prevented from being injured by the practice. It only takes an instant to crouch down and take one last look. It could prevent a tragedy. It doesn't matter if you've looked 10 seconds ago, do it again.

I have been yelled at FOR TAKING THE SAFEST CORES OF ACTION before! There was a cook out at the station at [Name Withheld] when a derelict building next door had part of its roof suddenly collapse. People didn't know what happened at first and when the news was broken people just took it in strides "well that building has been falling apart for years, no big deal" Since I wasn't on duty in any official capacity I walked to a nearby over pass to get a better view, I then started thinking about possible squatters or broken power lines or gas pipes in the building and decided to call the fire department. Boy did I get an ear full from the GM for doing that "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR? YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THAT! YOU NEED TO ASK US BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT." I tried to explane that since the building wasn't part of the railroad I didn't think it mattered and got more of an ear full. To make a long story short it turned out there was a high pressure gas line that was running through that part of the building and we had a visiting steam locomotive that was being stored nearby so good thing I called. I guess the GM was mad that I was calling the shots on "his turf." It is sad when safety takes a back seat to ego.